


Opinion

by CALira



Series: Out There [3]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: M/M, Mushy Cute Argue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 08:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4427789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CALira/pseuds/CALira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It gets personal. </p><p>Follows "The Need to Talk"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Opinion

**Author's Note:**

> How does the worlds cutest couple argue while trying not to hurt each other?  
> I like to imagine hesitation, losing focus and actively trying to distract.
> 
> Series - Out There - Chapter 3 - end
> 
> Previous chapters: "Bribery", "The Need to Talk"

Eric stared deeply into the eyes of his beloved boyfriend Aaron as they huddled together on the edge of their shared bed. He lovingly held hands with the one person that meant everything to him,

“You colossal jerk.” 

Eric's broken ankle was on its third day of mending and an extremely concerned Aaron was doing his damnest to mother him to death. They were currently having a heart-to-heart chat. A tetchy heart-to-heart chat.

“I can't believe that you think so little of me.” Eric's expression was crestfallen. 

It was a testimony to the closeness and comfort the couple shared that Eric felt safe enough to let a clouded streak of hurt obscure his normally warm and friendly brown eyes. The sight, however, sliced deeply into Aaron’s heart.

“I think the world of you.” He gently ran his thumb along the breadth of Eric's prominent knuckles. 

“Really?” Eric snarked with bittersweet abandon,

“Because kicking me off the recruiting team and replacing me with a complete stranger doesn't exactly proclaim 'confidence in the lanky redhead'.”

He quietly removed his hand from Aaron’s grasp and cradled the curly topped brunette's Classical Age jawline. 

Aaron gently covered Eric's graceful hand with his forest chaffed one. He quietly studied his boyfriend's handsome features.

Eric frowned slightly as he slipped his hand out from under Aaron's. He tucked the suddenly chill and lonely hand under its partner on his lap. In an unhappy and frustrated voice he continued, 

“It's like you don't think I'm an adult.” 

“What? I don't... I... I know you're an adult!” Eric was the only person Aaron had ever met that could derail his composure so completely.

He sat facing Eric, the lap of his folded leg pressed tightly against his boyfriend's accommodating thigh. The familiarity and warmth of the connection reminded him how much he loved this kind and playful man and how he hated knowing he was hurting. 

His natural instinct was to distract Eric from anything painful with flippant humor and smutty innuendo. His mind desperately scrambled for ideas and landed his thoughts in a mischievous and somewhat slatternly neighborhood.

Aaron assumed an air of indignance. Not even attempting to mask the impish glint of light that sparked behind his striking grey-blue eyes, he announced grandly,

”I do not fornicate with minors.”

Eric's lips curled into a wicked grin. It just wasn't in him to ignore an opportunity to tease the hell out of Aaron. 

“Oh, how quickly you forget your freshman year at college. Poor lad, not even eighteen.” He clicked his tongue against his teeth and gave Aaron a sound 'tsking'.

“You were eighteen three hours later!” Aaron flared out his hands in amused exasperation.

“... _and_ I was eighteen only two weeks before that.”

“Still, you should have been ashamed of yourself,” Eric scolded gleefully.

With haughty smugness Aaron reminded him, “I didn't hear you complain.” 

“Not so easy to complain when your mouth is full.” The corners of Eric's grin tried their best to meet each other behind his shining copper colored head.

Aaron touched a deeply textured hand to Eric's deceptively narrow chest with its tightly banded muscles and took a dramatic breath. Sparkling romantically at him, he gushed, “Poetry? And so early in the evening?”

Eric chuckled. He fondled Aaron’s hand and pushed it more firmly against the flesh over his heart. He cocked an eyebrow lewdly, “Besides, there is absolutely nothing to complain about when you lose track of your clothes.”

It was a positive sign that Eric was in the mood to play. Aaron hoped it meant that his naughty-memory tactic had successfully distracted his cinnamon latte of a boyfriend enough to just drop the topic. Eric had already tenuously agreed to being replaced on their two man recruiting team and that was all Aaron wanted to accomplish tonight.

He smiled cautiously, loitering in the back alley of hopeful relief. He collected Eric's hands and gently worked them with his fingers.

Eric sighed happily. He loved Aaron's smile and was ridiculously giddy that he was the reason for its appearance. However, he knew his man extremely well. 

He leaned forward and kissed Aaron's temple. Nuzzling his unshaven red-gold flocked jaw against Aaron’s fresh scrubbed cheek, he whispered, “Nice try. But you aren't off the hook.” 

Even after all these years, it still surprised Aaron how easily Eric could see right through his spinmeister's bag of tricks and clearly see the reality behind the illusion.

Aaron shrugged with a sigh, “It's your own fault. My mind gets all dirty when you're this close to me.” He bared his gleaming white teeth in a shamelessly feral smile. 

Eric rolled his eyes and chuckled. Reaching for an errant curl along Aaron’s forehead, he tucked it lovingly back into the field of puppy brown lambswool hair atop his boyfriend's clean cut face. Balancing Aaron’s chin on pale fingers, he looked purposefully into the man's mist blue eyes, “Listen to me, my adorable forest creature, we are going to discuss this.” 

Aaron nodded silently and steeled himself for the inevitable. 

Eric hesitated. It was hard for him to broach the subject. He hated the idea of hurting Aaron’s feelings, but he couldn't live with thinking that the man didn't believe in him. 

He sheepishly opted to buy himself a few more minutes by indulging himself just once more in his favorite pass time. Ignoring what he had just told Aaron, Eric launched a singular teasing poke at his solid, kindhearted boyfriend.

“OK, so you _definitely_ see an adult, you lewd and filthy thing.” He scanned him indecently.

Aaron gestured a hand at himself and laughed, “Wait. _I'm_ the dirty minded one?”

Eric tilted his head and in mock confusion he lilted, “So, you're bragging now?” 

Wrapping a lean hand gently around the back of Aaron's hardy neck, Eric pulled their foreheads together. A few heartbeats later he broke contact and kissed the boyfriend-next-door face lightly on the forehead. Continuing with a sigh, “OK. For real this time. That's enough of that.” 

Settling back against the headboard, Eric furrowed his brow and flattened his lips into a thin line. He proceeded with determination, “The more accurate description of the problem is that you are making me feel like a pet.”

“What?” Aaron was floored and his brain decided to sever all ties with him.

Eric raised an eyebrow, “You know. Like an adorable ginger puppy that you have to fence up in the backyard to keep out of traffic?” 

“What?!” Aaron stumbled over his tongue trying to absorb the Eric-flavored shock.

“You know you said that already, right?”

“Huh?” He really was a well spoken man even if he just couldn't seem to prove it at the moment.

“That's better, I guess.” Eric smirked gently and readjusted his body to relieve the numbness in his _extreme_ lower back. Oddly satisfied to feel the stinging needles of decompressed neurons, he continued,

“Aaron, Babe, I don't just mindlessly follow your commands. It may not seem like it, but every time I “do as you say” it's a conscious choice. One based on available information and careful thought.”

“I had hoped it was because you love me,” Aaron dejectedly lowered his gaze.

Eric's head bobbled. In a distant voice too otherworldly to convey anger, “Like I earn a doggie treat of your love for being obedient?”

“What!? No. No!” Aaron usually didn't short circuit like this before his negotiator's conditioning kicked in to save a conversation. But this was Eric and the man was imbued with some arcane form of supernatural thought jamming radiance that threw Aaron off his game every time they argued.

Thoroughly flustered, he asked, “Do you really think that I discount you like that?” 

Eric nodded minutely in barely perceptible response. His lifeless mouth and sad eyes personified his disillusionment, “I thought I had proven myself to you by now.” 

Self-esteem bruised but intact, he gathered Aaron’s hands and looked deeply into the fog blue eyes. Rocking the hands gently he continued,

“The ankle was an accident. It wouldn't have happened if Caveman Rick's Travel Agency of the Damned hadn't commandeered booking the tour.”

Eric let Aaron’s hands drop and leaned backward. Crossing his arms over his heart, he shrugged his shoulders and continued, “And, yes, I handled it badly and got myself knocked flat by the curve ball.”

Aaron shrugged and nodded silently in response as he smoothed a hand along the worn surface of the sturdy brown pants covering Eric's lap.

Eric averted his foal like eyes from the look of worry on his beau's face. “I know that I let you down. Believe me, I'm disappointed in myself too.”

“No! Never disappointed.” Aaron’s body seized involuntarily. 

Eric threw his hands in the air, “Then what is this? Why have I been fired?”

"You scared the hell out of me.” Aaron reached for Eric's hands without response. He draped his fingers over them anyway.

“I nearly had a coronary when I saw that damn emergency flare.” There was an aching sadness in his voice.

“I stopped thinking about anything but getting to you. Screw the mission. Leave the recruits to become roamer chow.” 

Eric's neck tensed. “Yes. I heard about your little trip into the woods on my behalf. Unarmed. Hands bound behind you. Are you sure you're not the one that needs to stay home?” 

Pushing past the sudden sting of derision, Aaron pleaded, “Please cut me some slack on this. I need you to stay home where I can _know_ that you're safe.” 

“Safe?” Eric cracked the air with a horrible thunder clap of laughter. 

“What, here? In Homophobotopia? “ He gestured widely, indicating the immediate world around them,

“Are you sure you want to risk it? The helpless hobbling homo without his handler?” 

Aaron growled protectively, “Don't _ever_ say that about yourself.” 

The anger in Aaron's voice snapped Eric out of his sudden fit of hostile self-pity. Disgust and shame tore at him and demanded that he make amends. 

Speaking into his chest he said, “I apologize. I was being a brat.”

“It's OK.” Aaron gave him a tender forgiving smile. His torso twisted in discomfort from a sudden stab of guilt. He didn't want Eric to feel that he ever had to apologize to him for anything. 

Eric looked back up at his partner with a thin plastic smile stapled to his face. The contrived sentiment, however, didn't quite make it to his eyes. 

“I am that grown ass man we were talking about, after all. Of course I can handle myself in make believe suburbia.”

Aaron brightened. Straightening his leg, he planted his sand colored sock against the headboard next to Eric's hindquarters. Rubbing his sleeping knee, he grinned, “I know. I've seen you do that.”

He leaned back on a load bearing arm anchored just beyond Eric's warm and friendly thighs. “Remember?”

Eric's genuine smile appeared and lit his eyes from within. His face relaxed as he spoke, “When we first met.”

“Yeah. That Career Day field trip Sophomore year,”Aaron prompted.

“The holding cell in D.C.” 

“You got jumped by those two wannabe bashers.” 

“Hmph, yeah. They thought that they had found easy prey.” Eric smirked maniacally. 

Aaron beamed with pride, “By the time I got there you had broken that one guy's nose.”

“...and you broke the other creep's arm when he slipped the neck lock,” Eric chuckled lightly.

“Aaah”, they sighed in unison; warmly in love for the ages. Bonding over the shared nostalgia of assault charges.

“Hey, wait. I'm mad at you for wanting to leave me behind,” Eric said seriously.

Aaron righted himself and refolded his leg, once again abutting his lap along Eric's thigh, “I would never _choose_ to leave you behind anywhere. I always want you by my side.”

With a shuddering breath he concluded, “But after this last evil clown riot of a run, I realize that I haven't ever really kept you safe out there.”

Eric over-emphasized his words, “That's the point.” He sighed deeply,

“You don't _need_ to worry about me. The ankle insanity not withstanding, I can take care of myself. I thought we just established that.”

Aaron looked at him with sadness. “I don't want you to _have_ to take care of yourself. And I don't want your life at risk, period.” He shook his head in remorse.

“Alexandria is cold and unwelcoming and I hate leaving you to face it alone.” 

He swallowed hard. “...but it isn't lethal.” 

Eric countered, “Is it supposed to be okay with me that you risk your life by being out there alone?”

“I won't be alone. I already found a great replacement.” Blood drained cold from behind Aaron's ears with such an intensity that he thought it had to be a stroke.

“So you've _told_ me... and were much nicer about it.” Eric tried to be angry but he found himself quite enchanted by the sight of Aaron the Unflappable floundering around his embassy manners.

“I'm sorry. I can't seem to keep my boot out of my mouth today.” Aaron would have laughed if he didn't feel like such a moron.

Longing to see his boyfriend smile again, Eric teased, “Does it taste as funky as it smells?”

“Worse,” Aaron grinned in relief.

Eric sat quietly a moment tracing a finger along the inseam stitching of the khakis covering Aaron's comfortable thigh. He looked into Aaron's face, silently enjoying their closeness.

“It'll all be okay if you just stay in the house. Just stay home...in the house.” Neither of them were exactly sure who Aaron was trying to convince with that fractured mantra.

Eric felt playful in a passive-aggressive way. “Will I need to be fitted with an ankle monitor? There's plenty of room left on the good one.” 

He twirled his undamaged foot around in proof. “See?”

Although Aaron appreciated the lack of venom in Eric's sarcasm, he was desperate to get the man to understand what he was trying to say.

“The sight of you on that cold cement floor - broken, in pain, surrounded by weapons and strangers...” His voice creaked. 

“It's all that I see when I close my eyes. There's no way I'll be able to keep either of us safe if you are out there with me.” 

Eric lifted the knee of his undamaged leg and planted the sole of his foot on the bed. Tucking his bare toes under Aaron’s thigh he asked, “So why go out there at all?”

Aaron answered in surprise, “There are good people out there that need help.”

“Very altruistic, Hon. But I know there's more to it.” Wrapping his arms around his shin, Eric rested a cheek on the elevated knee.

“Tell me, St. Aaron. Why do _you_ need to go out there where it is lethal?”

Aaron was embarrassed at being caught in his double standard. He narrowed his eyes and said quietly, “You know why.”

“I need to hear you say it,” Eric said sadly. “Why is it more important to risk your life out there than it is to stay here where at least _you're_ safe?”

Aaron went Vesuvius and uncharacteristically let his words spew like freshly erupted lava, “I can't breathe in here, OK! All the fake civility - I can't take it. It's like the way it was growing up. Too many people wanting me to be someone that I wasn't. Doling out ridiculous punishments if I wouldn't conform. I sometimes just need to get the hell out of this bell jar and breathe some damned freedom. Happy?!” 

“No!” Eric sat up and unfolded himself. Dropping his leg back onto the mattress, he continued, “I don't like hurting you.” 

He took Aaron’s hand, “I love that you get the chance to temporarily escape this place and your past. Breathe your free air and be that noble heroic Aaron I am so in love with.”

He sighed, “... but I need you to understand that as much as you need me safe, I need you safe. There's no way I can _know_ from here if you're okay out there.”

Aaron tapped the side of a loose fist lightly on Eric's lap, “You'd still be alive.” 

“Without you? That's no life.”

“So, what then? You want to die pointlessly, hand in hand like...like... ” Aaron trawled his memory and, much to his embarrassment, cited the only example that came to mind, “... Thelma and Louise?

Eric was feeling surreally philosophic, “Great art reflects real life.” 

“Great?”

“Yeah-ok-whatever,” Eric ran his words together in irritated frustration. Relaxing his shoulders, he breathed calmly,

“Yes, I would rather die with you than live without you.”

Aaron asked tersely, “Why are you so fixated on my death?”

“Because I love you, stupid!” 

“Well, I love you too you migraine with feet!” 

They were both winded and temporarily disoriented by the odd shift of mood in their conversation. After Aaron's mind stopped spinning, he softly palmed Eric's cheek, “I've always believed in you and that won't ever change.” 

His eyes hardened, “But It's ugly and nasty and evil out there! You _know_ that! I love you and I am not going to let that shit out there anywhere near you ever again!”

Aaron breathed hard. Needing to take a moment to calm himself, he studied Eric's body language for signs that he was actually making headway in convincing the man how highly he valued him. Aaron realized his mistake when his mind wandered and noticed much more than he planned about his boyfriend's body.

Eric sat leaning back against the headboard in a James Dean slouch. The thoughtful expression on his thin face pushed his wide lips out in moist and shameless invitation. His shiny fox-red hair still whorled in defeated chaos from the ravages of his pillow.

Aaron was panting from more than just frustration.

“Just how the hell can you be so damned hot while I'm yelling at you?”

Eric admonished Aaron with a scolding fingertip gently poking his plaid covered pec, 

“First of all, pal, nobody's yelling. We are discussing loudly for the benefit of the NEIGHBORS CHEAP THRILLS.” Throwing himself hard into raising his voice at the end of his statement, he leaned too far toward the open windows. Aaron grabbed him by the waist hoping to keep Eric's melodramatic display from smacking him against the nightstand and cracking his skull open.

Eric turned his attention back to the worried Aaron. Melodramatically annoyed, he swatted the steadying hands away from his waist. Leaning forward he added crossly,

“Second of all, Ah-rOn, have you ever considered that I just might not be able to control being sexy!?” he smirked naughtily.

Aaron snapped his gaping mouth shut with an audible “ha'up”. The explosive laugh that followed relaxed his body and left him smiling broadly.

Eric's twisted grin and teasing eyes were back. Aaron was elated to see them again. It was too bad he had to ruin the reunion. He wasn't about to give up trying to convince Eric that wanting him to stay home had nothing to do with the slim redhead's effectiveness in the field.

“There's more at risk here than just your life.”

He swallowed and continued gently, “You remember last summer, those 3 people?” 

Eric stiffened and his throat went dry. “What about them?” he asked in a flat rasp.

“When things went bad and I was about to be target practice? You came up out of nowhere and killed them all.”

“Yeah. What?” Eric shrugged ambivalently. “I've had to resort to that before. I'd do it again. It's an acceptable exchange for your life.”

“It was disturbing how very good you were at it. Calm, cold, efficient. Three shots, three kills and they barely had time to draw on you.”

“C'mon, Babe. You can't just shoot people in the back no matter what kind of evil shit they are.”

Aaron gestured at Eric, “There. That 'ends justifies means' disregard for life. That's something I never expected to see from you. It came on so fast that day that I wasn't even sure it _was_ you at first.” 

Aaron’s features tensed from worry and sadness. This was a sore and terrifying subject for him.

“I didn't say anything then because I was so grateful for the rescue – still am by the way. Always will be.” 

Aaron stroked a rough hand along Eric's bare forearm from the carefully folded cuff of his shirt down to his pale wrist. He gently traced small circles on the back of Eric's hand.

“I was relieved when you turned back into you just as quickly. But, it haunts me that I'm the reason you learned how to become that guy.”

Eric fondled Aaron’s knee. “It's only for the sake of your immediate survival that I would ever even begin to consider justifying taking a life.”

His face lightened and he smiled at Aaron sweetly, “I mean it's not like I go on midnight rampages. We have about eight neighbors that are still alive and that's not just because we aren't allowed guns inside the compound.” 

Aaron shook his head and chuckled quietly. “No. Thankfully, you haven't gone all 'public enemy' on me.” He collected both of Eric's hands again and held them firmly.

“None of this is about what I think of you. Everything I've said and done here today is driven by my need to keep this version of you safe.” 

He pursed his lips, “...and on an even more selfish note, I'll be safer out there by knowing that you are safe in here even if it only means that you are still alive.”

Eric rubbed a hand along the back of his neck. Laying his head against the top edge of the headboard, he looked up at the ceiling. After a moment, he heavily exhaled one word, 

“OK.” 

“How's that?,” Aaron blinked in shock.

Eric rolled his head toward him. “I don't know that I'm completely convinced that you believe in me.” Eyes tired and dim, he smiled weakly. 

“But I don't want to argue about it anymore tonight. Trying to out manipulate each other isn't getting us anywhere and it's tiring.”

“You're giving up?!,” Aaron accused in disbelief. 

“Oh My God!” Eric bolted upright laughing loudly.

He wore one of his patented smirky smiles as he landed a hand on Aaron’s deep chest and groped a firm plaid pec. “Put it like that again and we can start this fight all over if you like.”

“Uh, no. I'm good.”

“Yes, you are, my brawny little lamb.” Eric smiled and raised his pale hand to the thick mass of springy shorn curls above Aaron's ear and scrunched it playfully with his fingertips. Aaron smiled and pretended to be upset by pulling his head away the tiniest fraction of an inch. Moving his hand to gently hold Aaron's cheek, Eric beamed at him and let his hand linger.

“I love you”

With a weathered hand, Aaron cradled Eric's jaw. 

“I love you, too.” He planted a relieved kiss gently on Eric's soft lips. 

“Thank you for working on this with me.” Aaron slowly slid his hand down his partner's long neck and out along the wrinkled material covering the pronounced clavicle spanning his chest. He wrapped his hand fondly over the tight knobby shoulder.

Eric nodded with a quiet smile, lovingly smoothing the tan plaid of Aaron's shirt with his relocated hand. He was serenely content to enjoy the warmth of Aaron's deep flannel chest in the ancient light of the full moon.

Aaron, however, was never so easily at peace. It wasn't in his nature to leave things well enough alone, especially when it came to Eric. Lips rolled inward, his eyes darted around in aimless agitation.

“Just say it before you rupture something.” Eric smirked in benevolent amusement.

Aaron reflexively held Eric's hands tightly by the wrists and blurted out in one breath, “Why-are-you-suddenly-taking-this-so-well?”

He scrunched his eyes shut and tensed his shoulders, bracing himself. 

Eric didn't yell. He didn't even answer. Aaron tentatively opened one eye and caught sight of his smiling, sweet, kind and loving Eric.

“I want you to be safe or just alive, too.” Eric tilted his head and favored Aaron with a schmaltzy smile that shamed the moonlight with its shine.

“So unclench.”

Aaron chuckled happily in relief.

Stretching his arms grandly, Eric twisted the kinks out of his back muscles. “Now, I feel like a landfill and smell like a locker room. You think you can help me out of these clothes that I've been wearing for three days?”

Aaron sprung to his feet with a mischievous smile. “Shall we start with your pants?”

“ooo. Yes, please.”

Aaron helped rotate Eric's legs over the edge of the mattress taking special care not to disturb the bulky ankle cast. He slipped one of Eric's trim but densely muscled arms around his own solid shoulders steadying him as they scooted his butt forward to the edge of the bed where his feet could find solid purchase on the floor.

“By the way, we will be arguing about this again.” Eric sucked a breath through his teeth.

“Of course.” Aaron agreed. But that could wait. There were more important things pending tonight.

He flashed Eric a huge, relieved and wanton smile. 

“OK now. Let's get you naked.”


End file.
